Vladimir Rakhmanin: VNR signifies Russia's commitment to Sustainable Development Goals
Photo: © TASS/Mikhail Djaparidze
On 14 July, at a session webcast from the UN headquarters in New York, the Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov presented the country's first Voluntary National Review (VNR) of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The document showcased at the High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development under the aegis of ECOSOC was prepared by the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation.
On 16 July, 2020, the UN Global Compact (UN GC) Network Russia held a follow-up conference at the TASS News Agency in Moscow devoted to the launch of Russia’s Voluntary National Review (VNR).
“Becoming sustainable — this is what we called the session, emphasizing the process that has certainly and perceptibly been launched in Russia — the process of transition to a model of sustainable development,” Marina Vashukova, Executive Director of the UNGC Network Russia, said in her opening remarks.
“On the one hand, it is not easy, on the other, at this stage we do not have a unified strategy in the field of sustainability, and we do not fully understand how many difficulties we will face on this path, Vashukova noted. Nevertheless, the state, the civil society, and the private sector are all interested in this prospect, and are involved in it and are trying to find a common language, terminology, understanding, and common values. In particular, we could see this in the multi-stakeholder consultation process when preparing the first Voluntary National Review on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
As Aleksandr Plakida, Chairman of the Governing Council of the UNGC Network Russia Association, emphasized, “we continue the cycle of regular discussions on business strategies in the context of the SDGs, which are held on the platform of the UN GC in Russia and abroad (the latest notable events in this regard are the Cooperation Forum in February 2020 in partnership with FAO and FSC, which gathered more than 200 Russian and international experts and participants in an offline format)… Today we have reached a new level and the mission of this session-conference is to support government and business efforts in the context of sustainable development, and to support the Russian VNR.”
Vladimir Rakhmanin, FAO Assistant Director-General, Regional representative for Europe and Central Asia, participated in the session via video link. In his speech, he noted that “FAO acts as the “custodian” of SDG 2 dedicated to eliminating hunger. In the UN system, FAO serves as the custodian agency for 21 SDG indicators and a contributing agency for another five indicators. In this capacity, FAO supports countries in monitoring the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.”
The day before the presentation of the Russian VNR, FAO presented its annual report “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI-2020). Vladimir Rakhmanin stressed that according to estimates by FAO and other co-authors of the report (WHO, WFP, IFAD and UNICEF), since 2014, “the number of starving people in the world is growing again, and the burden of malnutrition in all its forms remains one of the most serious global problems. Despite some progress, the world is lagging behind in achieving global nutrition goals. At the current rate, humanity will not be able to eliminate hunger on the planet by 2030. Moreover, the on-going COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate global food insecurity.”
As the Deputy head of FAO noted, ”we appreciate that as a donor country for international development, Russia is funding FAO projects to assist other countries, in particular, the successful FAO project “Developing capacity for strengthening food security and nutrition” on improving nutrition in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.”
“The Russian government pays considerable attention to the development of rural areas, the infrastructure of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and the strengthening of economic ties among the regions, said Vladimir Rakhmanin. FAO and its Moscow office provided methodological assistance in these areas to Russian partners, primarily to the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation. We are ready to continue this fruitful cooperation.”
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The session was organized by the Association of the UN Global Compact (UN GC) Network Russia and its partners: the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation and the UN Information Center in Moscow.
The session was held in an integrated form (offline and online) with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Analytical Center for the Government of Russia, the Accounts Chamber of Russia, the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan, UN Offices in Geneva and Nairobi, UN agencies and programmes (UNEP, UNIDO, FAO, UN-Habitat, UN GC) and other international and local specialized organizations.